A Cheesy Story
by GiLaw
Summary: Takes place after Season of the Skull. After being slobbered over by Sparx and humiliated in front of the others, Nova storms off into her room, furious that her own team laughed at her. Meanwhile, Sparx feels guilty for what he did to her and wants to make it up to her. SPOVA!


**WAZZUP MA FAVOURITE PEOPLE? GILAW IS IN THE HOUSE!**

**Let's cut to the chase! I'm just gonna say it: I hate the episode Season of the Skull.**

***INSERT DRAMATIC AUDIENCE GASP HERE!***

**Okay, I'll admit I don't HATE it, nor do I dislike the entire episode. It's mostly the ending that ticks me off.**

**"Why?" I hear you ask. It's simple.**

**It's not funny, it's disgusting and it's just mean, if not totally sexist. (God, do I sound like Nostalgia Critic saying that? O.O)**

**I could rant on why I think this and why I hate that freaking rat scene but I think this fic will do just that for you.**

**Enjoy! ;D**

**A Cheesy Story**

Nova stormed into her room, furiously scrubbing away the last traces of slobber from her cheek. The coast seemed clear. Checking to see that she was definitely alone, she hurled the towel across the room and pulled out her fists, looking for something to wallop. Her punching bag was the first thing that came to mind.

Fuming, she stomped over to it and gave it the hardest punch she could manage. It didn't help. She punched it again but again it didn't help her calm down. Getting frustrated, Nova threw her best combat punches at the bag but it seemed that the more she whacked it, the angrier she became. When she couldn't take it anymore, she grabbed the punching back with both hands and ripped it off the chain. Letting out a roar, she thrust it to the ground and pummelled it hard, dust blowing everywhere. She panted hard, sweat trickling down her forehead.

That didn't help at all.

Never in her life had she felt so humiliated!

Out of all the possible spells, out of all the scenarios that could have happened and it had to end up with her getting . . . Nova cringed, disgusted just thinking about it.

And you'd think that getting licked by a giant rat Sparx was bad enough. But _NOOOOO! _It was worse! What did her so-called "teammates" do when Sparx picked her up, helpless and confused and literally started slobbering over her?

_**THEY LAUGHED!**_

Even Antauri and Gibson couldn't help but chuckle at the situation. And she could hear Sparx moaning happily as well, shaking with delight through disgusting licks. They all laughed at her. LAUGHED AT HER FACE!

And the worst part? When they actually turned him back. In fact Nova was surprised that Otto bothered to turn him back at all, he was having the time of his life! But when he eventually did turn Sparx back (which ended up with them crashing to the ground together since Sparx had grown like ten times his size), he didn't seem to be bothered about her. He just opened his eyes, gave her a look and muttered:

"You're not cheese?" (Actually it was more muffled than that since his tongue was still stuck out.)

Chiro and Otto had collapsed laughing, Gibson snorted and even Antauri grinned and scrunched up his eyes with laughter. Nova had shoved herself from Sparx's grip and raced off in humiliation, the horrible sound of laughter ringing in her ears . . .

She deactivated her fists and brought her hands to her ears, trying to block out the sound. But it just wouldn't leave her, no matter how hard she pressed them. She collapsed to her knees, screaming at this stage.

_Why _did they have to laugh at her? _**WHY?!**_

She was so worked up in her thoughts that if she hadn't opened her eyes, she probably wouldn't have noticed Sparx racing past her room before skidding to a halt and cautiously walking back to see if she was there. Nova glared at him and lowered her hands, her fists clenched.

"There you are! I've been looking everywhere!"

She gritted her teeth. "Oh really? Couldn't get enough of it, huh? I must taste REEEEEEEALLY good, right?" she demanded.

Sparx gulped, sweating a little. "W- well I didn't mean to-"

"Oh yeah! _Sure_ you didn't mean to do _anything _to me!" Nova snapped sarcastically.

"But I didn't-"

"Sparx, I've heard it all before! I'm not talking to you! Get out!" she ordered, pointing out of the door.

Sparx backed away, not sure what to do. This wasn't like one of those situations where Nova was upset over something to the point of breaking down in tears. No, she was REALLY mad now and would probably slaughter him if he didn't play it right.

He attempted to approach her in a soothing manner but Nova noticed and immediately pulled out her giant fists again.

"GET AWAY FROM ME, SPARX!"

He backed away again. "I wasn't gonna lick you!"

"Yeah sure you weren't! You were probably gonna do worse!" At this rate, Nova was so furious that she found herself panting way too fast for herself. "Yo- you . . . You were probably gonna bite me or something, weren't ya?" Without giving Sparx a chance to reply, she continued on. "You know what? Bite me! I dare ya! You enjoyed licking me, Sparx! So bite me! And lets get the others in here too so they can LAUGH AT MY FACE WHILE YOU BITE IT OFF!"

For a moment, Sparx just stood there, dumbstruck. But he quickly came to his senses and shook his head. "Look, Nova, I'm sure they've gotten over it . . ."

"I can hear Chiro and Otto snickering from up here!" Nova yelled. "Which reminds me! I still need to clobber Otto for casting that stupid spell in the first place and making a fool out of me!"

"He made a fool out of me too!" Sparx replied, trying not to lose his cool. "Do you know what it's like when you look disgusting and you don't even know it until someone tells you much later?"

"Yeah but you didn't notice, did you? Because you were so worked up, happily smothering my face! You thought I was cheese but you didn't stop to think that maybe there might be something suspicious going on, did ya?! Like where was I? Did you stop to think? NO YOU DIDN'T! You were only focused on enjoying yourself, enjoying _**LICKING MY FACE WHILE THE OTHERS LAUGHED AT ME**_!" she ranted. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she panted "You really are a rat, Sparx."

Each word she spoke was tearing at Sparx's heart strings. But he had to fight on and help her calm down. "It was part of the spell!"

"That's not an excuse!"

"I'm sorry, Nova!"

"So you're sorry now? Is that it?" Nova demanded. "Well you didn't seem very sorry when you grabbed me and . . ." She cringed and growled, feeling the need to stop bringing it up. Seeing this, Sparx tried to approach her again. But Nova wasn't letting her guard down and kept her fists up.

"I SAID KEEP AWAY FROM ME!"

He backed away, his heart throbbing. "Nova, please . . . calm down . . ."

"Oh I'm calm alright! You know what? I'm so calm, I'm gonna go to bed right now and have a _VERY _good night's sleep!" Nova yelled, stomping to her yellow tube bed. "You know what I'm gonna dream about, Sparx? I'm gonna dream about giant rats biting my head off while everyone else in the universe laughs at me!" she added, angrily climbing in.

Sparx watched her, feeling more concerned than ever. "Nova . . ."

_**"SPARX, I HATE YOU! GET OUTTA MY ROOM! GOOD NIGHT!" **_With that, Nova threw the blanket over her head, covering herself completely and shut the tube bed on him.

Sparx froze, unable to take in what just happened. Did she really just say she hated him? It took every ounce of his strength to trudge out of her room and shut the door behind him while trying to keep his face from crumpling.

The guilt he felt was . . . pretty overwhelming. And the words _"Sparx, I hate you" _were even worse. He glanced at her bedroom door. He hadn't meant to hurt her like this. And to think that she was lying there, thinking that everyone out there was making fun of her her . . .

Wait a sec.

Chances are that she mightn't have meant what she said. It might have just been out of anger or maybe a way to make him leave. He had test her words. And he had a pretty good idea in mind . . .

Nova curled up underneath the blankets, relieved to finally be alone. Or was she so relieved? For some reason, she was trembling. The sound of laughter was beginning to ring in her ears again. And the thought of giant rats towering over her, grabbing her helpless body and snapping at her with sharp teeth began to haunt her memories, making her shiver. She could have had her head bitten off and they'd still laugh.

She suddenly heard her door open and footsteps approach her, causing her to tense up. What was it now?

"Whoever it is, go ahead and laugh at me and just get it over with," she moaned, praying that she wouldn't have to suffer long.

Silence . . .

Nova frowned under the blanket. "WELL?!"

"Nova, you cannot let one experience get the better of your emotions." It was Antauri.

She groaned. She was in for it now.

"So?"

"There is nothing to be ashamed of. You can't hide like this forever," the silver monkey replied.

"Yeah, that's real nice," Nova muttered angrily. "You know I'd probably be moved by your advice if YOU HADN'T LAUGHED AT MY FACE LIKE THE OTHERS!"

"Nova, I never laughed at you."

"I saw you, Antauri! It was hilarious, wasn't it?"

"Nova, you must understand that I wasn't laughing at _you_," said Antauri. "I was laughing at situation you were in."

"THAT'S THE SAME THING!"

"No Nova, it's not," Antauri said patiently. "You see, the situation you found yourself in could have happened to anyone. Anyone at all. I believe you remember Thingy."

"Oh yeah," Nova murmured. "That little furball. He was a cutie."

"Indeed," said Antauri, nodding. "And you might remember that he took a particular liking to Gibson . . ."

For a moment, Nova paused. That moment when they had sent Thingy after Gibson _had _been pretty funny . . .

But she shook her head a little sadly.

"Well I don't remember Thingy considering Gibson _edible_. And something tells me that getting licked by Sparx won't leave you immune to any viruses," she sighed. "Just go away, Antauri. I wanna be left alone."

Antauri raised his eyebrows but remained neutral. "You would be surprised to hear that Sparx feels just as much shame as you do right now."

"Oh don't you start too!" Nova replied, in an edgy tone. "It's not true. He actually ENJOYED licking me!"

"And that's exactly why he feels ashamed," said Antauri, a pleasant smile appearing on his face. "He felt guilty at the thought of what he did to you. In fact, I believe he's gone down to tell the team how you feel about this."

That caught Nova's attention, enough to make her open her tube bed door, sit up and pull the covers off her body. "He's what?"

"He said you hated the thought of your teammates laughing at you," said Antauri. "So he has decided to explain to the others your feelings about this situation."

Nova's eyes widened in disbelief. "Let me see!"

Antauri nodded in approval. "Very well," he smiled, closing his eyes and holding out his hand. Nova closed her eyes too and suddenly heard noises coming from the command center as if she was in there instead of her room . . .

She heard the sound of Sparx sliding down his red tube and heading somehwere. As he did so, Nova heard Chiro, Otto and possibly Gibson (though she couldn't be sure) snicker to this.

"So Sparx . . ." Chiro smirked. "How does Nova flavoured cheese taste?"

As he and Otto burst out laughing, Nova clenched her fists and gritted her teeth in anger. But what Sparx said next calmed her down . . .

"Guys, seriously. It's not funny. Nova's not happy. She's really embarrassed . . . I think she might be really upset. I tried talking to her but she wouldn't listen, she just wants to be alone."

Nova sat there, stunned but touched by what she was hearing. For a moment, there was silence, though she could hear what seemed to be Otto and Gibson making concerned movements, whether it was standing up straight or staring at Sparx.

"Well is she okay?" Chiro asked, concerned.

Sparx sighed. "Yeah . . . she should be alright. I think she just needs some time alone. She'll be fine in the morning." Another sigh. "I hope . . ."

"Sparx, if she's not better in the morning, I'll run some tests on her. Just in case," said Gibson.

"Yeah . . . Just don't push her," Sparx pleaded. "I don't wanna make her feel like you're mocking her or anything."

"Is she really mad?" Otto whimpered.

"She's fine, Otto," replied Sparx. "I'll see if I can talk to her in the morning when she's calmed down. Just don't mention anything to her cause she won't like it."

"Right," said Chiro sternly.

Sparx nodded and began to head off. Next thing, Otto interrupted.

"Do you think you could tell Nova I'm sorry for casting that spell?" Nova almost laughed at his innocent request.

Sparx sounded pretty amused too as he replied "Don't ya worry, Otto. I'll let her know it wasn't your fault."

Antauri nodded in satisfation and lowered his hand, opening his eyes as he did so. Nova opened her eyes too but stared more into space than anywhere else.

"He did that . . . for me?"

The silver simian nodded.

Nova shook her head, unable to believe it. She just took all her anger out on him and he still went to the bother to tell the others how she- oh no.

She sat up straighter as she remembered:

_'Sparx still thinks I hate him!'_

She groaned and brought her hands to her face in frustration. "I let my anger get the better of me again."

"In what way?" Antauri asked interested.

"When he was trying to talk to me . . ." Nova scrunched up her eyes. "I was so mad, I wasn't thinking . . . I yelled out that I hated him just so he'd leave me alone."

"I see . . ." said Antauri. "Well is it too late to retrace your steps? You saw for yourself what Sparx did to undo the wrong he felt he did. Isn't it time you did the same, Nova?"

Nova nodded quickly. "Yeah . . . Yeah, you're right!" Not wanting to waste any time, she jumped to her feet and ran out of the room while Antauri watched on in approval.

She glanced around the corridor, just as she spotted Sparx trailing into his bedroom. She followed after him, not sure how to approach him. He was leaning on his tube bed, hiding his face in his hands. Taking a deep breath, Nova approached him and murmured the word "Hi."

He turned around when he heard her, surprised to see her up. "Oh . . . hi."

She could tell there was a hint of guilt in his tone. She had to get him out of it. "How are you?"

"Fine," he replied, shrugging. "You know . . . Otto said-"

"I know."

He gave her a look. "You do?"

Nova nodded. "Antauri kinda showed me . . ." She blushed a little and looked down at her feet. "Yeah."

"So you saw I told the others how ya felt and how you didn't like them mentioning the whole . . ." It was Sparx's turn to trail off shyly.

"Well more or less heard you but yeah," Nova muttered. She waited for a moment before adding "Thanks for that."

"No problem," Sparx replied though he did glance away from her.

"Sparx?"

He looked up. Nova hesitated and took a few shaky steps towards him. She took a deep breath before finally admitting:

"I don't hate you."

The corners of Sparx's mouth tilted upwards. "Yeah I thought not."

Nova blushed a little harder but managed to get herself to head over to him and wrap her arms around his shoulders.

"And I'm sorry for yelling at you."

Sparx's smile grew wider as he happily returned the hug. "It's okay, Nova."

Nova stopped and gave Sparx a confused look. "Sparx, why did you forgive me so easily after I was such a jerk to you?"

"Cause I know you didn't mean it," he smiled. "I knew you were mad and all but I knew you couldn't possibly mean half the stuff you said."

Nova beamed and hugged him tighter, feeling safe and very very happy with him. A mischievous grin suddenly spread across her face.

"So . . . looking forward to the Spook Day?" she asked cheekily.

Sparx froze. "Oh! Spook Day! Um . . . y- yeah, sure. I mean, wh- why not?" he stuttered uneasily.

Nova giggled. "Nothing wrong with that?" she teased.

"N- no, not at all," Sparx lied, sweat trickling down his forehead.

Nova's grin grew wider. "You're not _scared_, are you, Sparky?"

"What? Me?" Sparx laughed, his own smirk coming to his face. "Why? Are you?"

"Excuse me?!" Nova exclaimed, though she was laughing.

Sparx chuckled and pretended to gasp. "You're not _scared_, are ya, Nova?"

"As if!" With that, Nova laughed and gave Sparx a playful little shove.

"Ohhh you asked for it now!" Sparx grinned, pouncing. Nova let out a squeal of delight as he grabbed her and started tickling her torso, causing her to squirm around helplessly but playfully.

"AH! SPARX! STOP!"

"Yeeeeeah, you like that don't ya?" Sparx chuckled, reaching up for her shoulders and tickling them too. Nova squealed louder and hunched up her shoulders but managed to whirl around and pounce at him, knocking the two of them over. The two of them laughed and playfully tackled each other for a bit before finally calming down, both panting heavily but happily. Nova rested her head on Sparx's shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her.

It was just the two of them, no one else and they liked it. Just the fun, the company, the atmosphere and the fact that the laughter was coming from the playfulness of it all and no mockery of any sort.

Nova sighed happily before finally deciding to say something she had been planning to say the whole time. Grinning happily, she looked up. "Sparx, can I tell ya something?"

He looked up at her interested. "Yeah, sure."

She opened her mouth but laughed at the thought of it. Sparx smiled, not sure what she was going to say but liking the sound of it.

"What is it?"

Nova laughed a little harder. Then she finally gave Sparx her most mischievous teasing smirk before giggling:

"You make a cute rat."

**AND IT'S DONE!**

**Just when I thought my one shots couldn't get longer than Dearest Nova! X'D**

**LOL, I think this is one of the only few Spova fics where Nova doesn't cry too!**

**I FINALLY DID SOMETHING (KINDA) DIFFERENT!**

**And suddenly Season of the Skull seems that little bit more watchable. But you know what? It's not my most hated episode. And I've seen MUCH worse than bad SRMTHFG episodes!**

**Fellow Sparx fangirls will probably know what I'm talking about *wink wink***

**Anyway, I'll see ya! ;D**


End file.
